Welcome to my first Newshounds Newsletter – a regular update on our crusade to make every Aussie kid digitally literate.
Hello … it’s Bryce here from Squiz Kids, and welcome to the Newshounds Newsletter – the first in what will be a regular update from me on all things digital literacy.
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| Preparing our kids for a digital future has never been more important. Not least because artificial intelligence is about to upend everything we know. |
| Learning to think critically about the flood of online content to which they are exposed will become one of the most important skills we can teach our children. |
| It’s why two years ago we created Newshounds – a world-first, plug + play digital literacy program for primary school kids. It’s also why since it launched, more than 5,000 teachers around Australia have signed up to do Newshounds with their students. |
| The aim of this newsletter is simple: to provide an update on our crusade to make every Aussie kid digitally literate. Which to my mind, is one of the defining challenge of this digital age. |
| I’d really love this to be a two-way conversation. If you want to get in touch, send me an email at [email protected] and mark it to my attention. |
| Okay. You ready? Let’s do this .. |
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So, let’s start with the elephant in the room. I’m talking about the social media ban.
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| Passed into law last December with much fanfare, it was hailed by some as a silver bullet – capable of single-handedly solving all of the problems created by social media. |
| Yeah, nah. |
| Turns out kids have worked out how to get around it. Who would have thought? |
| The Federal Government reckons 4.7 million underage accounts on TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram were shut down in the weeks following the ban’s introduction. |
| But there have been no stats on how many new accounts were made in that time, by kids using fake birth dates to skirt around the new laws – as this excellent recent article by Crikey’s Cam Wilson points out. |
| How many parents of kids under 16 have had their kids’ phones momentarily shoved in front of their faces to cheat the facial recognition technology? |
| It would almost be funny if it wasn’t all so serious. |
| Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for the social media ban. Anything that gives parents a helping hand in the daily battle to get kids off screens is a good thing in my opinion. But we’re kidding ourselves if we think it’s a panacea. |
| Put simply: a social media ban can only achieve so much. If we really want to protect our kids from the myriad evils that lurk on the internet, we need to educate them to think critically about the content they encounter there. |
| And that education has to start at an early age – before they get a smartphone in their hands. |
| That’s certainly the message we passed on to Federal Communications Minister Anika Wells last October when she came to see Newshounds in action in a classroom in her electorate (shout out to the students and teachers of St Anthony’s in Brisbane) – and we petitioned her for federal funding for Newshounds. |
| As 2026 kicks off, we’ll continue to prosecute this case with anyone who will listen, as we fight to keep Newshounds free for every kid in Australia. |
| And if this petition we launched last year is any indication: lots and lots of you feel the same way. |
| So: buckle up as we launch into another year of fighting the good fight. And stay tuned here as we bring you news on updates as they occur. |
| Thanks for your interest and support. It really is appreciated. |
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| Me and the Minister spreading the Newshounds joy at St Anthonys in Brisbane |
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Digital literacy and a strong democracy go hand in hand.
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| It’s one of our fundamental beliefs here at Squiz Kids .. that you can’t have a vital democracy without strong civics engagement. And you don’t get strong civics engagement without a population that’s been educated to spot mis- and disinformation when they come across it online. |
| It’s a conviction we share with none other than the Governor General herself, Her Excellency Sam Mostyn AO – whom we’re pleased to say has become a great friend of Squiz Kids and a huge supporter of Newshounds. |
| Last December, I took the GG to visit St Francis of Assisi Primary School in Calwell, ACT to see Newshounds in action. And she spoke passionately about the importance of Australians not taking for granted the democracy we’re all lucky enough to be living in. |
| Drawing out the link between civics engagement and digital literacy will be one of our major themes in 2026 – with some exciting news soon to come on that front. |
| Watch this space … |
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| GG Sam and the kids of St Francis Assisi Primary School in the ACT |
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You might also be interested in these other tidbits from the digital literacy universe …
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- The very excellent Dr Amanda Levido, from Southern Cross University spoke to ABC Radio on Safer Internet Day about how parents can best keep their kids safe on the wildly popular online game, Roblox. Have a listen here (at the 1hr 28min mark).
- I’m looking forward to being among the speakers at this year’s ABC Education Media Literacy Symposium in Sydney on March 18. Staged in conjunction with the Australian Media Literacy Alliance, and this year featuring the ever-insightful Dr Tanya Notley as keynote speaker, it promises to be a great event.
- ICYMI … I was the privileged recipient of a Churchill Fellowship last year – travelling to the US, UK, France, Estonia and Finland to discover how digital literacy was being taught in other countries. My findings comprise the 7-part Squiz Media podcast series, The Big Threat. Click here to add it to your dog walking/house cleaning/gym visit/long drive-listening list.
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Highlights from the very excellent (very free) podcast content we’re serving up this week include …
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| Hopefully you know that Newshounds is only one part of the excellent kids’ programming we produce at Squiz Kids. |
| Squiz Kids Today is a free daily news podcast – just for kids. All the big news headlines of the day put through a kid-friendly filter. Perfect for the school drop-off, around the brekky table or – if you’re a teacher – in the classroom. |
| Each Tuesday we alternate with a Squiz Kids Shortcut (a deep dive on a current topic) and a Squiz The World (a virtual excursion to a different country of the world). Every Friday, there’s a Kids v Adults Weekly News S’Quiz and on Saturday you can wrap your ears around a Squiz Kids Science Short. |
| All of produced according to the Squiz Kids patented ‘sugar-coated broccoli’ formula .. audio content that kids have so much fun digesting, they don’t notice it’s also doing them good. |
| Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or via our website. |
| And then of course: to ensure the digital literacy mission runs through everything we do, every Thursday, we present a Newshounds segment in the daily pod – highlighting an example of mis- or disinformation on the internet. |
| This week, we leaned on the excellent work that’s done daily by AAP FactCheck – highlighting a malicious Facebook video scaremongering with a bunch of ludicrous claims about ‘new laws targeting seniors’. |
| As we told our pre-teen listeners: as the most digitally savvy generation, they have a vital role to play educating their parents and grandparents about media literacy and the importance of not automatically believing everything they see online. |
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| Credit: AAP Fact Check |
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Are you – or do you know someone or some organisation – interested in helping us in our digital literacy crusade? Get in touch with us here.
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| We’re always looking for like minded people/organisations to help us ensure Australians are the most sophisticated, critical consumers of online content. If for no other reason than for the safeguarding of our democracy. |
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